I. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a steam generator for a boiler or a nuclear reactor, generates a vapor by heating a fluid, produces and discharges a vapor-liquid two phase flow of the fluid and the vapor.
II. Description of Related Art
Steam generators are used in boilers or nuclear reactors for generating a vapor from a fluid. In such a steam generator, a fluid is introduced into a tank, the fluid in the tank is then heated with a heater and/or a heat exchanger tube to generate vapor (gas bubbles) in the fluid, and the fluid containing the gas bubbles, i.e., a vapor-liquid two phase flow is then discharged to the outside. After that, the vapor-liquid two phase flow is separated into the vapor and the fluid with a vapor-liquid separator as required, and then used.
A boiler provided with such a steam generator is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open H8-285204 (JP '204) mentioned below. The boiler described in (JP '204) is configured as follows. That is, a feed pump feeds a fluid into a steam drum; a circulating pump feeds the fed fluid in the steam drum to the steam generator; the steam generator produces a vapor-liquid two phase flow of heated water by heating the fluid; the vapor-liquid two phase flow of heated water is returned to the steam drum; the vapor-liquid two phase flow of heating is separated into a vapor and a hot liquid in the steam drum; and the steam is supplied to a load of various kinds of steam use.